Grain growers in eastern Kansas who plan to campaign for a seat on one of the state’s five grain commodity commissions — corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers — should gather petition signatures now to meet the Nov. 30, 2015, filing deadline.

The 2016 election will cover districts seven, eight, and nine. These districts cover the eastern third of Kansas.
 
District seven includes Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Jackson, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Marshall, Nemaha, Pottawatomie, Riley and Wyandotte counties. 

District eight includes Anderson, Chase, Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Johnson, Linn, Lyon, Miami, Morris, Osage, Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties.

District nine includes Allen, Bourbon, Butler, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Greenwood, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson counties.

To be eligible to run for any of the five commodity commissions, the candidate must have been actively engaged in growing corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers within the preceding five years.

Candidates must gather 20 signatures from eligible voters to be included on the 2016 ballot. No more than five signatures from any one county can be used to qualify a candidate. Eligible voters are Kansas residents who will reach age 18 before the election and who have grown corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers or wheat within the last three years. 

Candidate registration packets are available from the Kansas Department of Agriculture or the grain commodity commissions. 

More information is available from the Kansas Corn Commission at (785) 448-2626 or www.kscorn.com/; the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission at (785) 341-6433 or www.ksgrainsorghum.org/; the Kansas Soybean Commission at (785) 271-1030 or www.kansassoybeans.com/;  the Kansas Sunflower Commission at (785) 565-3908 or www.kssunflower.com/; the Kansas Wheat Commission at (785) 539-0255 or www.kswheat.com; or, the Kansas Department of Agriculture at (785) 564-6700 or www.agriculture.ks.gov/ksda-services/kansas-commodity-commissions.